Former foreign secretary David Miliband - Hacienda was 'coolest gig in the world'

Former foreign secretary David Miliband has paid tribute to the Hacienda and Manchester’s musical past. Mr Miliband told how, while he was studying politics at Oxford University, he read about the city’s legendary club – and said he always wanted to go.

Former foreign secretary David Miliband has paid tribute to the Hacienda and Manchester’s musical past.

Mr Miliband told how, while he was studying politics at Oxford University, he read about the city’s legendary club – and said he always wanted to go.

He said: “When I was a student in the 1980s, the Hacienda had the hippest, coolest, trendiest gigs in the world. You had to look up to that.”

The South Shields MP was speaking to the MEN after a Labour fundraising event at the Mechanics Institute where he was interviewed by former Hacienda DJ Dave Haslam.

Mr¿Miliband accused the media of being too London-centric. He said: “How often do you switch on Newsnight and see Sir Richard Leese on it?” He also said leaving government was like the ‘end of a love affair’.

Mr Miliband, who lost out on the Labour leadership to brother Ed in Manchester 18 months ago, refused to say if he would ever launch a new challenge. He said: “The honest answer is that I don’t know. I stepped aside because I did not want to become a soap opera.

“If I was in the shadow cabinet, what would happen if I took a slightly different point of view on things? It would become a talking point, a soap opera, and that would be a disaster for the party.”